Perching on surfaces happens electrostatically. The team used an electrode patch with a foam mounting to the robot. This allows the patch to make contact with surfaces easily even if the approach is a few degrees off. This is particularly important for a tiny robot that is easily affected by even the slightest air draft. The robots were designed to be as light as possible — just 84mg — as the electrostatic force is not particularly strong.

It’s estimated that perching electrostatically for a robot of this size uses approximately 1000 times less power than during flight. This would be of great use for surveillance robots that could take up a vantage point at altitude without having to continually expend a great deal of energy to stay airborne. The abstract of the research paper notes that this method of perching was successful on wood, glass, and a leaf. It appears testing was done with tethers; it would be interesting to see if this technique would be powerful enough for a robot that carries its own power source. Makes us wonder if we ever ended up with tiny flyers that recharge from power lines?

There are many methods for isolating one circuit from another, so no, it won’t fry up and it wouldn’t be a problem. (Take a simply switch, like a IGBT (yes it’s too big, I know), use that for closing the loop for the outward capacitor they had).

It’s a still a long way to robotic pollination, believe me ;)
Such robots should use sugar water (nectar) as fuel and can maybe use electrostatic forces to draw pollen or mechanical possibility for collecting pollen (some bees store pollen in pockets in their legs, these bees are called pocketmakers). They should have a chemical nose and the ability to distinguish flowers in UV/B/G (instead of R/G/B, as we see) and that’s just for bees. Some butterflies have even more photoreceptors, for example five. And birds (colibris for example) see R, which bees can’t see. Not to forget plants which are pollinated by other animals, even bats and mice are involved in pollination.

Images and video of that robot fly have been circulating the internet for close to ten years with zero advancement made until now and oh what a huge break through! OMG static electricity makes thing stick together!! WOW.